The blanket found near 5-year-old Timmy's remains was at the center of the conflicting expert testimony.
NEW BRUNSWICK --Two forensic experts testifying for the defense in the murder trial of Michelle Lodzinski had clashing opinions on the effect the exposure to nature could have had on evidence.
Nicholas Petraco, a private consultant who worked as a forensic scientist for the New York City Police Department, said he believes that despite being exposed to the elements for 11 months, there should have been traces of human contact or fibers on items found near Timothy Wiltsey's skeletal remains in a swampy area of Raritan Center in April 1992.
Five-year-old Timmy's remains were found 11 months after the boy was reported missing by his mother from a Sayreville carnival the evening of May 25, 1991.
Petraco insisted that trace evidence would not be washed away by exposure to the elements--in fact the evidence could "more closely adhere to the fibers."
He said the lack of trace evidence found by the FBI laboratory when it examined the blanket, a key piece of prosecution evidence, and the fact that he said photos showed it (the blanket) was not in a state of advance decay, made him believe the blanket was not "there for 11 months."
"I don't believe it (the blanket) was in contact with the victim," Petraco said, who admitted he did not examine the blanket itself.
Edward Gainsborg, the forensic scientist at the New Jersey State Police Laboratory, who did an examination of blanket and a pillow case for hairs and other trace evidence, in 2011, had testified as a prosecution witness that no trace evidence was found--only two hairs and they were not exact matches to Michelle Lodzinski's hair.
But, the defense recalled him to ask about a study he did of some fibers found on the pillow case that seemed to match ones found on the blanket.
Gainsborg said he did not do an in depth study of the fibers.
But, on cross-examination, Bevacqua asked him how being out in the elements would impact finding trace evidence on items such as the blanket.
Gainsborg being out in the elementts would have a "significant negative impact" on trace evidence.
The blanket is important because it has been identified in the trial by three prosecution witnesses, two of whom babysat for Timmy, as having come from Lodzinski's apartment and was used by the boy.
Lodzinski originally reported her son disappeared while she paid for a soda a concession stand at the carnival, but during the next several weeks, she told police different versions of how he disappeared, including that a woman she knew as Ellen and two men abducted him.
She was charged with murder in August 2014, after the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office reopened the investigation in 2011.
Lodzinski has always maintained she had nothing to do with her son's disappearance or death.
The trial will resume on Tuesday.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.